


A Self-Made Family

by afteriwake



Series: In So Few Words [99]
Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Laughter, Mentions of Arthur Stanley, More Than Staff, Motherhood, POV Prudence Stanley, Post-Series, Servants, Traditions, thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 00:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13019487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Just like her niece, Prudence Stanley has developed a makeshift family of her own with Mary and Joan.





	A Self-Made Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IdrisSmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdrisSmith/gifts).



> So this was a Christmas gift to **IdrisSmith** I had planned to write last year and didn't get around to, that's been milling about in my head. Hope you enjoy, dear!

It had been a long time since there was laughter in her home. Marigold had always been a serious, studious girl, and though he adored Arthur as much as he had adored her, she had never heard laughter or giggling when the two were together.

But Mary and Joan...that was an altogether different matter.

Despite the fact they had both come from the maudlin laundry and been there at roughly the same time, they didn’t know each other well. Mary said she’d been one of the “bad girls” and girls like Joan had been encouraged to keep their distance. But while she had a large kitchen, there wasn’t much ability to keep their distance from each other in the Stanley home, and perhaps that was for the best.

With Mary in the kitchen, she had moved Joan to a different position, something that would keep her breakables from being broken. For the meantime, while Mary’s little man was still a babe in his cradle, Joan would be his caretaker. Arthur seemed to take more of a liking to her upon her return, so she often kept the baby with Arthur and minded him while she helped Arthur with his letters.

And then there were times, though she often discouraged it, that the three of them would go into the kitchen so Mary could see her son was being well taken care of and Arthur could sneak a sweetie or two for doing well in his lessons. She would linger outside and listen, curious about their times together.

That was when she would hear the laughter.

There had never been much laughter between Arthur and Guy, but here, he laughed just as often as Joan and Mary and Cook. The first time she had heard it she almost thought she would burst with joy, and if Arthur got an extra sweetie...well, so be it. When t became a regular occurrence she was worried, of course, but neither Joan nor Mary let Arthur indulge, and he was still happy, still laughing.

Soon she requested Joan and Mary come dine with her and asked them to tell her about their day. It was a small tradition in the household, one paused for a time when Arthur died and the home was turned over to Dr. Samuels, but when she really grieved for Arthur she remembered with fondness the dinners, where things seemed a little less formal and a bit homier. 

In the way that Phryne had come across a family that extended beyond her mother and father, beyond even her, Prudence Stanley found she, herself, had a little family to tend to even with Guy off gallivanting with his wife and dear Arthur with his Lord above, and that made her content. Joan and Mary were more than servants, they were like the daughters she hadn’t had and, perhaps, their lot in life could be better than simply being servants.

It was the least she could do for the two who had helped bring joy back to her life.


End file.
